Elder Nelson's Mission in Perth Australia

This week was pretty crazy. So on Monday I had my last preparation day here in Butler. We also met with the Anitereas who we have been teaching and I am sad to go but I look for hearing about their baptism in the coming weeks. Then on Tuesday was my birthday so the other elders came and surprised me with a cake. Then the rest of the day I finished packing and said good bye to a couple of the members in the ward. Then on Wednesday we got up early and the zone leaders picked me up and took me to the bus station in Perth. Then I loaded my stuff on the bus and then for the next 6 hours I travelled up to Geraldton all by myself. The ride was pretty cool and I saw a family of wild emus which was awesome. When I got to Geraldton I met the other missionaries and my companion Elder Afualo. He is pretty cool. He is straight from Samoa and has been out for just six weeks. The area here is pretty nice and has heaps of potential. The town has ten times more people here than ...

So this week has been very exciting. So on last Monday we had our zone p-day with all of the other missionaries in the stake. We went to a park by a lake and played soccer, touch rugby, and capture the flag. Then later that night with the part member family in the ward, the Anitereas, again. It was an awesome lesson on the Restoration and at the end both the mother and the daughter committed to be baptized on the 15th of December. It has been awesome working with them and so we look forward to next month when they are baptized. On Tuesday we had service for one of the members setting up a fence and pulling up some pavers. Then later we had dinner with a Filipino family that joined the church just a couple years ago and we love going over to visit them and hearing their testimonies of the gospel. And they are both professional chefs so the food is always really good too. Then that night we had a stake priesthood meeting and it was nice to hear the stake preside...

So this week started out pretty great. We had an appointment with one of the part member families in the ward and shared a short lesson with them. Then we started discussing baptism with the 9 year old daughter in the family. The father is a member and the 2 oldest kids as well. But the daughter hasn't been baptized and wasn't sure about it because she is pretty shy and doesn't like to be the centre of attention. So as we were talking, the mom who also hadn't been baptized, suggested that we have a double baptism in December with her and the daughter. So we were super excited to see the mom having the desire to be baptized as well, so we hope to make that a reality this next month. Another big miracle for them was that they were able to get a new car. So now that they have reliable transportation they are committed to come to church each week. So a cool thing they do here in Australia is once a year they have a bulk verge collection where you ca...

This week was pretty awesome. So at the beginning of the week we did some service for a lady in the ward who is moving back to the UK in a little bit. The other missionaries in the ward came as well as another member. We helped her to organize and move a lot of boxes she had in her garage which took a while. During the service my companion and one of the district leader went on a mini exchange to visit with one of the boys we are teaching. They were able to teach him and he agreed to be baptized in 2 weeks. So that was exciting. On Halloween we went to the stake trunk or treat at the chapel. It was pretty crazy. There were a good number of cars that were set up for the trunk or treat. (about the same number as back in the US) but there we were heaps of people that came through and a lot of them were nonmembers that showed up. So it was good and we were able to catch up with a lot of the members we haven't seen in a while. It was funny because over here they call the car tru...